Firewall's Days Numbered?

The recent ransomware attack on an Austrian Hotel's room key system may have served as a wake-up call about the expanding risks introduced by the internet of things, but, as they say in show business, "You ain't seen nothing yet!" The emergence of IoT botnets has made fighting cyber-criminals even more difficult. An endless array of devices, many of which are equipped with little or no on-board security, can now be exploited to overwhelm targets with larger, more frequent attacks. Such is one of the key findings of "Arbor Networks' 12th annual Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report." "The survey respondents have grown accustomed to a constantly evolving threat environment, with steady increases in attack size and complexity over the past decade," said Darren Anstee, Arbor's chief security technologist. "However, IoT botnets are a game-changer because of the numbers involved. There are billions of these devices deployed, and they are being easily weaponized to launch massive attacks." Nearly two-thirds of the 356 network and security professionals Arbor surveyed represent service providers, while the rest are from companies in the enterprise, government and education segments.

Tony has been writing about the intersection of technology and business for more than 20 years and currently freelances from the Grass Valley, Calif., home where he and his wife are raising their two boys. A 1988 graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism and regular contributor to Baseline since 2007, Tony's somewhat infrequent Twitter posts can be found at http://twitter.com/tkontzer.